


He Was Coming

by ChokolatteJedi



Series: Identity Manifesto [1]
Category: Firefly
Genre: Challenge Response, Community: whedonland, Episode Tag, Episode: s01e14 Objects in Space, Gen, Insanity, Psychic Abilities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-26
Updated: 2012-05-26
Packaged: 2017-11-06 06:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/415923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She could hear him. He was coming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	He Was Coming

**Author's Note:**

> For my Wheadonland Manifesto challenge, "Identity." Pre-Objects iIn Space.

He was coming. Distantly approaching, but his thoughts winged in ahead of him like little sparrows peeping their alarm that the hawk approached. She ought to warn someone, perhaps, though Simon would just shush her and tell her that they were fine. That no one was coming. But he was. She could hear him.

_"Maybe I should put on my ruffly dress when I'm done. Not that it'll matter."_

She could hear all of them.

The rest of the family was busy. Caught up in their own problems and feelings – so many feels and worries and secrets and voices overwhelming her. Their insides and their outsides were disagreeing more and more and getting louder, and she needed to find a way to quiet them.

_"Nothing to ruttin eat 'cept protein again." Jayne stomped up the stairs from the cargo bay._

_"Protein's good for you after a workout. It rebuilds muscle strength."_

She left her bunk and crawled into the ducts above it, dust collecting on her palms and knees. Maybe the dust would cloud her mind, deaden their voices.

Dust. Particles of matter regarded as the result of disintegration. Echoes of former earth and bodies.

_"Early's coming for you, little girl."_

His voice was quieter than the others, but she couldn't let him fade into dust. She couldn't let him get Simon. And she couldn't go back.

He would come. Come for her in a ship. Couldn't dock – Cap'n wouldn't let him. He'd have to sneak in, quiet like a bunny. And she would have to be quiet too. Quiet like a jaguar. Hunting. He wouldn't want a fight, wouldn't want their guns. Stealthy. First rule of battle, little one.

_The captain left the bridge with Zoe. "Fanty say what kind of a job this was?"_

_"No sir."_

Second rule: divide and conquer.

He'd lock them up – divide Serenity into little boxes. Search box by box until he found her. And Simon. He had the wave – knew their facts. Days and times and secrets. River had to avoid the boxes. Couldn't be a cow, forgetting itself in the black. Had to trap him in his own maze.

_Wash snorted in his sleep. His dreams were easy to slip into, but she couldn't get lost in there. She had to be alert._

Like lab mice in a maze. Animals – all animals. The hominidae beast emerged from the trees and walked upright. She was a dog, bloody. No, a girl. A dog. Blood mixing, pooling.

The lines began to blur.

_"I can't even tell if the tramaxipan is working or not."_

No, the lines were already blurred long ago. Stick an eggbeater in the brainpan and stir. Blurred so much that the original girl is long lost. But the new girl, with her newly established treaties and boundaries and definitions, is blurring again.

And Early is coming.

_"Atta girl." Kaylee patted the engine. Kaylee had grease on her cheek. Simon wouldn't – couldn't tell her how cute he thought it was._

River was a golden dog. No, a girl. Not a girl, not anymore. But she could be Serenity.

Crawl up inside her and feel her cold brittle bones. She could lie against them and dissolve, fossilize, disappear.

She could override the commands, could speak for the both of them. Voices fading, echoing in the black.

_"This job better not be hauling a bunch of dead fish. Nor live ones, for that matter. We'll never get the smell out."_

_"At least there wouldn't be big droppings."_

_"Oh that's funny."_

Serenity's hum was right at 1,920 hertz when nothing was wrong. River was 960 hertz. 960 was 1 third of 2,880 and 1,920 was two thirds. One third and two thirds would be three thirds, or a whole. It would be harmonious.

But something was wrong. An intruder was coming.

_"We're all just floating."_

He was here.


End file.
